Fallen heroes remembered

By Jennie Jones Giles Times-News Staff Writer

Monday

May 28, 2007 at 12:01 AM

Sometime after Sept. 15, 1944, Burchard P. Gibbs of Dana received a telegram. His son, Army Pfc. Glenn Gibbs, 22, was killed in action in Italy. The family, including an older son, Howard Gibbs, gathered at the home in Dana.

Sometime after Sept. 15, 1944, Burchard P. Gibbs of Dana received a telegram. His son, Army Pfc. Glenn Gibbs, 22, was killed in action in Italy. The family, including an older son, Howard Gibbs, gathered at the home in Dana.

The next day, a telegram arrived at the home of Howard Gibbs. His youngest brother, Army Pfc. James Gibbs, 19, was killed in action in Italy.

"We lived in an apartment in Asheville," said Velma Jones Gibbs, 88, widow of Howard Gibbs. "A telegram arrived telling Papa Gibbs one of his sons had died. We didn't have a car and had to borrow a car. We went over to Papa Gibbs' house and came back that night because we had to return the car.

"The next day, they came with a telegram to our house," she said. "I couldn't do it. I couldn't tell him (Howard). A neighbor went up to the apartment and told him."

The brothers were serving together with the 5th Army, 34th Division, 133rd Infantry Co. under Gen. Mark Clark in the Po River Campaign in Italy during World War II.

After receiving word of Glenn's death, the family worried about James.

"They were so close," Mrs. Gibbs said. "Howard said it was kind of a relief that they both went together."

The headline of the Times-News read: Gibbs Boys Killed Same Day in Italy.

"Together all through their training and service, Pfc. James A. Gibbs and Pfc. Glenn P. Gibbs made the supreme sacrifice for freedom and liberty together. Both were killed in action in Italy on Sept. 15."

"They went overseas together," Mrs. Gibbs said. "They were killed, both with the same shell, they told us."

The brothers were the sons of Burchard Pinkney Gibbs and Nannie Merrill Gibbs. Their mother had died before the war. Before entering the Army, the young men lived for a time with their brother and sister-in-law in Anderson, S.C., where oldest brother, Howard, worked with the Trailways Bus Co. before the company transferred him to Asheville. Their older sister, Wilma Gibbs Stepp and husband, Harold, lived in California.

Glenn was drafted, Mrs. Gibbs said. When Glenn left on the bus for Fort Jackson, S.C., "James went with him and joined."

The young soldiers went through basic training together. They trained together as military police and were based at Camp Wheeler in Georgia and later at Fort Meade in Maryland. They traveled overseas together.

Mrs. Gibbs made a scrapbook in memory of her brothers-in-law. The scrapbook is more than 60 years old. The cherished book contains medals, letters, Purple Hearts, Gold Star certificates, military patches, photographs and newspaper articles.

"I've got every letter James and Glenn wrote us in that scrapbook," she said. "They were just so close to each other.

"James was very shy," Mrs. Gibbs said. "Glenn was outgoing, a ladies' man."

Glenn took piano lessons from the late Minola Sinclair in East Flat Rock.

"You ought to have heard him play," she said.

"James was quieter and good in school," she said. "He bought us a bedroom suit, I still have it."

During basic training, Glenn was proud of his marksmanship.

"I shot the highest in the whole 9th Bn. of 1,000 men," he wrote.

The expert rifleman medal is in the scrapbook.

The first stop after leaving the United States was North Africa.

"We met two Hyder boys and a Jones boy on the boat we came on from North Africa," Glenn wrote after arriving in Italy. "I knew them all, went to school with them in Dana."

The 5th Army liberated Rome from the Germans on June 4, 1944. Letters from James and Glenn described the city.

A letter dated June 5, 1944, from somewhere in Italy: "We are still sleeping side by side."

Glenn sent a cartoon that he drew of himself, with the caption, "This is what Italy has done to me."

In a two-month long summer campaign, Allied forces pushed the Germans 150 miles north to the Arno River. In August 1944, the 5th Army held the western portion of the Allied line from the Ligurian Sea at the mouth of the Arno River to a point just west of Florence, Italy. The 5th Army was conducting a diversion, trying to convince the Germans this place was the main thrust. In actuality, the main offensive was coming from the coast.

The last letter in the Gibbs' scrapbook was dated Sept. 5, 1944. Glenn described the heavy rain and foxholes filled with water.

"I sure would hate to have to stay in a foxhole now," he wrote.

On Sept. 10, 1944, Gen. Clark opened Operation Olive with an assault by all three corps under his command. The 34th Infantry Division, along with others, was concentrated on a narrow five-mile front and were to move north along Highway 65, the main road to Bologna, Italy, through the Futa Pass.

As the Allies reached the mountains, the intensity of combat increased, according to the Army's military history and books on the Po River Campaign.

The 34th and 91st Divisions, with support from corps artillery, assaulted the Gothic Line on Sept. 12. The Germans used the mountain peaks, streams, ridges and spurs of the mountains as defensive positions.

On Sept. 15, 1944, the Gibbs' brothers were together, resting, according to a soldier who was wounded at the time they were killed. A German shell exploded, killing and wounding many soldiers, including the two brothers.

Supreme sacrifice

One day of the year, Memorial Day, is set aside for Americans to gather, remember, reflect and honor the men and women who gave their lives in service to their country.

The Gibbs' brothers are buried, side-by-side, in Oakdale Cemetery, next to the Henderson County World War II memorial that lists the names of the men from the county who died in World War II.

During construction at Dana Elementary School, a plaque was found on an old wall.

The plaque named the two brothers who attended the school and died together in World War II, said Richard Waters of Dana. The plaque was given to the Henderson County Education Foundation.

The brothers were first buried in a U.S. military cemetery in Italy, about 19 miles south of Florence. After the war, the bodies were returned to Henderson County. A re-interment ceremony was held at Oakdale Cemetery.

"They had flags over each casket," Mrs. Gibbs said. "A soldier arrived with each casket. We held the funerals the same day, together."

A surviving niece and nephew in California, Nancy Culp and Gary Stepp, have one of the flags. Mrs. Gibbs has the second flag. Nephew James Gibbs of Annandale, Va., named for his uncle, will receive that flag.

The family also has letters or "certificates" from President Franklin Roosevelt. One for each brother.

"In grateful memory of Private First Class Glenn P. Gibbs, who died in the service of his country Sept. 15, 1944. He stands in the unbroken line of patriots who have dared to die that freedom might live, and grow, and increase its blessings. Freedom lives and through it he lives, in a way that humbles the undertakings of most men. Franklin Delano Roosevelt."

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